


alive

by INMH



Series: hc_bingo fanfiction fills 2019 [9]
Category: Dead by Daylight (Video Game)
Genre: (in a sense), Blood and Injury, Drama, Gen, Horror, Hospitals, Hurt/Comfort, Major Character Injury, Post-Game(s), Surgery, Survival, Trauma
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-05
Updated: 2019-07-05
Packaged: 2020-06-09 21:08:58
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,045
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19484074
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/INMH/pseuds/INMH
Summary: The trials have concluded, and the survivors deal with the aftermath.





	alive

  
“ _Pull him down! Quick!_ ’  
  
[---]  
  
“ _Help!_ ” Claudette screams as they drag Tapp into the emergency room (lights! normal sounds! normal people!). “ _Help!_ Please, we need help!”  
  
Nurses rush over. Dwight and Kate help them get Tapp onto the stretcher. He’s gurgling blood as they wheel him into surgery.  
  
[---]  
  
“Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God oh my _God_ oh my _Gooood_ , it went all the way through his chest!”  
  
“What do we do, oh my God, what do we do, he’s gonna die!”  
  
[---]  
  
Claudette blows out a breath, runs a hand through her hair.  
  
Kate sinks to the floor against a wall, drawing her knees to her chest and wrapping her arms around them.  
  
Dwight sinks down into a chair stationed beside her, falls over and lies down across a couple of them; a few people nearby change seats, move away from him.  
  
A wide-eyed nurse calls the police.  
  
[---]  
  
“ _I need the two of you to shut the fuck up!_ ”  
  
(Claudette is scream-whispering, can’t tip off the hulking menacing Trapper that they’ve freed Tapp from the hook.  
  
She’s never told anyone to shut the fuck up before; not to their faces, anyway.)  
  
“We need to get him out. _Now._ ”  
  
[---]  
  
Claudette sees the nurse on the phone, eyeing them warily.  
  
“Dwight. Kate.”  
  
They stare at her blankly; Claudette kneels down in front of them.  
  
“We tell the most basic parts of the truth: We woke up in the woods, a psycho in a mask chased us, and he hung Tapp on a hook. We say nothing about the mist, or the killer’s invulnerability, or the- the-”  
  
“Spider-Monster?” Kate whispers.  
  
“Especially that.”  
  
  
[---]  
  
(They creep towards the door; they do not sense the Trapper nearby.  
  
It’s cruel that Tapp should be so badly injured now, after the four of them had survived three (two and three-quarters, technically) trials together.  
  
Claudette doesn’t know if this door will lead them to freedom, or another trial.  
  
She only knows that Detective Tapp’s time is severely limited.)  
  
[---]  
  
The nurse asks them if they need medical attention.  
  
Dwight gets brought in for a gash on his arm; Claudette and Kate are uninjured, and so they stay in the waiting room.  
  
“I want to go home,” Kate whispers. “I want to go _home_.”  
  
So does Claudette.  
  
But she digs her fingers into her thighs, breathes, and waits.  
  
[---]  
  
“There’s the door.”  
  
“Should we open it?”  
  
“What else should we do?”  
  
“I don’t know! I just know we’re screwed if the Trapper comes!”  
  
“Open it. Tapp doesn’t have time.”  
  
[---]  
  
The police show up.  
  
 **BERLIN P.D.** says the patch on their arms.  
  
 **NH** is etched into the bottom of it.  
  
 _I’m so far from Montreal_ , Claudette thinks, head spinning. She doesn’t know where the others are from- no, wait, Kate mentioned Pennsylvania.  
  
They’re all far from home.  
  
“Alright,” A grim-faced office said, “Let’s sort this out.”  
  
[---]  
  
 ** _WOOONK._**  
  
(The machinery of the door whirs and clangs so _loudly_.)  
  
 _Please don’t come._  
  
(A second light pops up.)  
  
 _Please don’t come._  
  
 ** _WOOONK._**  
  
“Please, please, please.”  
  
(The heartbeat starts in her ears.)  
  
 ** _WOOOOOOOONK._**  
  
“ _RUN!_ ”  
  
[---]  
  
Claudette tells them the most believable version of the story:  
  
 _I was in Montreal._  
  
 _I was coming home from school._  
  
 _At some point I blacked out._  
  
 _I woke up in the woods._  
  
 _I met Dwight, and Kate, and Detective Tapp._  
  
 _A killer stalked us._  
  
 _We never saw his face._  
  
 _He never spoke._  
  
 _He put Tapp on a giant hook._  
  
 _We got him down and escaped._  
  
She hopes Dwight and Kate are telling the other officers something similar.  
  
Or else they’re all going to end up in a very different kind of hospital.  
  
[---]  
  
(Claudette and Dwight haul Tapp past the doors.  
  
Kate runs ahead, illuminating the way with her flashlight.  
  
Claudette looks behind them as the heartbeats recede, and she almost stumbles to a stop: The Trapper is watching them from the other side of the door.  
  
He cocks his head, and then slowly waves a hand:  
  
 _Goodbye._ )  
  
[---]  
  
As it is, the cops believe them.  
  
(For now.)  
  
Each of them has been missing for about two weeks, all from different parts of the country.  
  
Claudette likes to think the officers can see the terror in their eyes as well, proof that they have endured _something_ awful.  
  
“We’ll have you home in no time.”  
  
Claudette should be relieved.  
  
But all she can think of is Tapp and his bloody, gaping wound.  
  
And the spider-legs that had come from the sky to take him.  
  
[---]  
  
(They run through the forest, dragging Tapp, until they see the lights of civilization.)  
  
“We’re out! We’re free!”  
  
(Dwight starts laughing. Kate starts to cry.  
  
Claudette focuses on moving her feet and keeping Tapp upright.)  
  
[---]  
  
“Had to remove one of my lungs,” Tapp croaks.  
  
He really shouldn’t be talking.  
  
“You guys alright?”  
  
He _really_ shouldn’t be talking.  
  
“We’ll live,” Dwight whispers.  
  
It rings false, as weary and ragged as they all still are. They are due to go home soon, a nebulous date while the investigation continues. Tapp will stay in New Hampshire until he can be safely transported home to… Either New York or New Jersey, she’s not sure which.  
  
“What about you?” Kate asks, eyes hollow. “Will you live?”  
  
“I plan on it.” He’s drugged up and uncomfortable, but he still manages to meet their eyes and convey gratitude as he says: “I owe you all my life. Seriously. Any of you need anything, you let me know.”  
  
They leave him after a time, Claudette going last, and Tapp catches her before she goes. “Hey. You, especially: You kept me alive. Thanks for that.”  
  
Claudette smiles weakly, but genuinely. Interacting with people has always been hard for her, shy and withdrawn as she is, and even such a near brush with death, dismemberment, and a fucking _flying spider-monster_ apparently hasn’t been enough to break her of it. “You’re welcome. I couldn’t just let you die.”  
  
“You could have,” Tapp assures her, eyes going a little dead. “Other people have. You didn’t. I made it out because of you.”  
  
“We did,” Claudette whispers. The enormity of what they’ve survived is starting to occur to her: They’ve dodged a killer, avoided being sacrificed to some otherwordly God, and Tapp had survived having a hook speared through his chest. “We survived.”  
  
“Yes we did.”  
  
-End


End file.
